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On the Identity of Roots Theoretical Linguistics 2014; 40(3/4): 225 – 276 Heidi Harley On the identity of roots Abstract: This paper attempts to articulate the essential nature of the notion ‘root’ in the morphosyntax. Adopting a realizational (Late Insertion) view of the morphosyntactic model, the question of whether roots are phonologically indi- viduated, semantically individuated, or not individuated at all in the syntactic component are addressed in turn. It is argued that roots cannot be phonologically identified, since there are suppletive roots, and they cannot be semantically iden- tified, since there are roots with highly variable semantic content, analogous to ‘semantic suppletion’. And yet, they must be individuated in the syntax, since without such individuation, suppletive competition would be impossible. Roots must therefore be individuated purely abstractly, as independent indices on the √ node in the syntactic computation that serves as the linkage between a particular set of spell-out instructions and a particular set of interpretive instructions. It is further argued that the syntactic √ node behaves in a syntactically unexceptional way, merging with complement phrases and projecting a √P. The correct formula- tion of locality restrictions on idiosyncratic phonological and semantic interpre- tations are also discussed. Keywords: Distributed Morphology, Hiaki (Yaqui), idioms, Elsewhere Condition, competition, allosemy, allomorphy, one-replacement, unaccusatives DOI 10.1515/tl-2014-0010 1 Introduction Lexical items are typically built around a core element, identifiable by linguists, though not always by speakers, as a root. Factors that a linguist might take into account in identifying occurrences of a root across different contexts include identity or similarity of form, identity or similarity or meaning, and purely mor- phological behaviors, such as idiosyncratic selectional restrictions with respect to affixation or other morphological processes. For example, a Semiticist faced with the semantically highly variable but phonogically consistent consonantal root b.x.n, which might be glossed ‘related to examining’, might conclude that it Heidi Harley: Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona, USA. E-mail: [email protected] Brought to you by | University of Maryland - College Park Authenticated Download Date | 11/10/17 12:56 AM 226 Heidi Harley is the phonological form – the particlar consonants in a particular sequence – which crucially individuates the formative: the root is √bxn, with different inter- pretations in different morphosyntactic contexts. In contrast, a Uto-Aztecanist, faced with a semantically invariant but formally suppletive verb such as mea ~ sua, ‘kill (singular object) ~ kill (plural objects)’, might conclude that it is the meaning – the abstract concept of ‘killing’ – which identifies the formative: the root is √KILL, with different phonological realizations in different morphosyn- tactic contexts. This paper investigates whether a unified theory of roots can be constructed which allows a motivated approach to root identity at both extremes. Although the term ‘root’ traditionally designated a descriptive morphological category, in Distributed Morphology (as in many morphological theories), the term names a particular theoretical construct which plays an important role in the framework. Here, some empirical evidence is brought to bear which illumi- nates the nature of roots in this model, and which has implications for other models that make use of a similar construct. It is argued that neither phonologi- cal properties nor semantic properties are sufficient to individuate root nodes in the syntax. In consequence, a purely formal notion of root identity is needed for use in syntactic computation, to which phonological and/or semantic properties can be attached at the relevant point, both potentially contingent upon particular morphosyntactic contexts.1 The conclusion, then, is that syntactic roots are individuated as pure units of structural computation, lacking (in the syntax) both semantic content and pho- nological features. Following Pfau (2000, 2009) and Acquaviva (2008), an index notation is adopted, according to which individual syntactic roots are referred to simply by a numerical address. The idea is that the address serves as the linkage between a set of instructions for phonological realization in context and a set of instructions for semantic interpretation in context. Having established this framework, a further pair of questions can then be asked: First, how do root nodes behave in the syntactic component, and second, what kinds of conditions are imposed on their semantic and/or phonological interpretation at the interfaces? In the second half of this paper, arguments are given that roots can and do take complements and project, and again, the empir- 1 Although the particular conclusions argued for here, taken individually, are for the most part uncontroversial outside the Distributed Morphology framework, the empirical results presented in support of them are relatively novel and should be of interest to investigators working from a broad range of perspectives. Furthermore, the overarching moral drawn from the conjunction of the empirical results – that root individuation is neither phonological nor semantic – is a purely general one, relevant to any model of morphosyntax, even though implemented here using Distributed Morphology technology. Brought to you by | University of Maryland - College Park Authenticated Download Date | 11/10/17 12:56 AM On the identity of roots 227 ical basis for the argument draws on both semantic and morphophonological data, as well as syntactic evidence. This discussion is tightly connected to the second question, concerning constraints on the semantic and phonological interpretation of root nodes. It is clear that different morphosyntactic environ- ments can trigger both special meanings and special pronunciations of roots. Some proposals (Marantz 2001, 2008; Arad 2003, 2005) argue for a very stringent locality condition on root interpretations. With (Borer 2009), I argue that the con- straints cannot be quite so restrictive, and argue for a return to the view of the relevant locality domain originally advanced in Marantz (1995b, 1997), according to which the projection which hosts the external argument marks the domain edge. The paper is laid out as follows. In section 2, the relevant aspects of the Distributed Morphology model are reviewed, and its original concept of an un- individuated acategorial root node is introduced. In section 2.1 arguments are presented which point to the conclusion that roots are in fact individuated in the narrow syntax. Further consideration shows that the basis for this individuation is neither phonological (section 2.2) nor semantic (section 2.3). The consequences of this discussion are spelled out in section 2.4, where an overview of root individ- uation, phonological realization, and interpretation is provided. In section 3, ar- guments are provided in favor of treating root nodes as conventional syntactic entities, capable of taking complements and heading phrasal constituents. The first such argument, in section 3.1, is syntactic, based on the analysis of one- replacement in English from Harley (2005b). The second, in section 3.2, is based on the conclusions of Kratzer (1994, 1996) concerning the differential constraints on idiomatic interpretations of verbs with respect to external and internal argu- ments. The last, in section 3.3, relies again on the suppletive root phenomena discussed in section 2.1, showing that the conditioning environment for supple- tive root insertion in Hiaki is maximally local (Haugen et al. 2009, Harley et al. to appear; Bobaljik and Harley to appear). Finally, in section 4, the correct char- acterization of the locality conditions on idiosyncratic root interpretations is discussed. Section 5 concludes. 2 Root individuation in Distributed Morphology Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz 1993) provides a unifed framework within which both morphosyntactic and morphophonological phenomena can be modelled, and which integrates with the core Y-model of Chomskyan genera- tive linguistics in a straightforward way. Analyses couched within the model have ramifications and make predictions concerning phenomena far from the Brought to you by | University of Maryland - College Park Authenticated Download Date | 11/10/17 12:56 AM 228 Heidi Harley traditional bailiwick of morphologists, particularly with respect to the LF branch of the Y-model derivation. The model’s name reflects Halle and Marantz’s insight that the properties of traditional lexical items actually are distributed across separate components of the grammar, rather than being collected in a single list of sound/meaning correspondences with structural annotations, as in a more traditional lexicon. Instead, there are three such lists, each of which is relevant to only a subset of the fuctions of the lexicon in a lexicalist theory. One list contains the formatives which enter the syntactic computation. These are bundles of morphosyntactic features specifying structural relations, satisfied in the syntax by the usual syn- tactic operations – Merge, Move and Agree, in current Minimalist terminology. A second list specifies the phonological forms which compete to realize the terminal nodes of a completed syntactic derivation, after Spell-Out to the PF branch. The third list specifies interpretive operations which similarly ‘realize’,
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